Hello everyone! Welcome back to the Love In Trouble (Suspicious Partner) Drama Club! As this series comes to an end we discover more about Hyun Woo's past. We say good bye to our favorite couple Ji Wook and Bong Hee as they face one of their biggest challenges: surviving as a couple. Also another couple emerges as Prosecutor Cha and Eun Hyuk become closer. Join Marakeshesparrow, OhSoEnthusiastic, and I as we discuss these and other topics in the final episodes of Love In Trouble (Suspicious Partner)

COMING SOON

Love In Trouble (Suspicious Partner)

Marakeshsparrow: Well I’ve got to say, I’m fairly pleased with the way this drama ended. Maybe that pleasure is mostly at the fact that it’s over, but either way you look at it, I’m not disappointed. I think it’s pretty interesting the way they wrapped up Hyun Soo’s storyline (though I’m sad to think he was involved in the crime against the girl he loved), but that does bring more of the amnesia element into it and makes a morbid kind of sense. It’s like he was driven crazy by what happened to her and his role in it all, which would explain why he would try blocking it out and project all his guilt and rage on the other men who were guilty. What did you ladies think of that part of the story?

OhSoEnthusiastic: I won’t lie. It was a really fascinating idea to have him be somewhat responsible for what happened to her (and I half wondered if they were going to go that direction.) But this drama has been a drama of wasted ideas, in my opinion. They clearly had grander plans than what they ended up achieving, and it just leaves me…… They left all their best ideas until the very end when we really needed them sooner. But maybe that’s just me.

DeShonda: I am also very satisfied with the outcome of this drama. I felt like I had some closure with Hyun Woo’s story. I was glad to finally know some of the answers to questions about what happened to the girl.

Marakeshsparrow: OhSoEnthusiastic--we are totally on the same wavelength here. I definitely think they could have not only paced this drama better, but also made various plot revelations a lot more powerful and impactful. For example, I had almost forgotten about the D.A.’s character and his connection to anything until they brought him back in to tie up that storyline. They should have brought him back in sooner, because his whole illegal arrest of Hyun Soo for the murder of his son felt rushed and kind of after-the-fact to me. I still got some satisfaction out of it, don’t get me wrong, but I had been rooting for something big to happen involving the D.A. since the early episodes when he first reared his ugly head. At this point in the drama, I didn’t really care anymore and I feel like they could have played that card in a better way.

OhSoEnthusiastic: The connections between the D.A. and the main mystery were….unnecessary, in my opinion. It felt like they were setting him up as the real villain, but we already had an incredibly fascinating one. We didn’t need another. For my part, he should have stayed relegated to ‘distraught father who’s kind of shit at his job’ role.

DeShonda: I almost forgot about the D.A. as well. I agree that he should have been bought back much sooner and indeed everything was a bit rushed with his involvement in the story. Which is something I was afraid of happening.

Marakeshsparrow: And I think you’ve landed on the real flaw of the series--too many storylines and no clever ways or weaving them all together. There were a lot of things that seemed to start and then just fizzle off. What about that whole “two people in this room are going to die” thing--that was never really resolved, more so just abandoned. Eh… (focus on the positive, Marakesh, focus on the positive). I will say, I’m glad Bong Hee and Ji Wook finally got past all their bull and finally started an actual relationship. But again, this came so late in the game, I had more or less lost my patience. But despite that, they were cute together and I enjoyed what time we had with their fluff and happiness.

OhSoEnthusiastic: But did they really? I mean, they were still fighting over nonsensical things at the end. The drama just tried to play it off as endearing, but we went through so much frustrating back and forth with them that it was nowhere near endearing for me. And Amen, Halleluah, Yes! There were too many storylines. It was impossible to figure out what I should be grabbing a hold of in the story, because there was so much and so little was connecting.

DeShonda: I was wondering about that “Two people will die in this room” element of the story as well. I thought for sure that someone was going to meet an unfortunate fate. But I was also very happy to see the development of romance between Bong Hee and Ji Wook as well as Prosecutor Cha and Eun Hyuk. All of the storylines did keep me very interested throughout this series and kept me wondering what is going to happen next.

Marakeshsparrow: Back to Bong Hee and Ji Wook for just a sec--I was on board with their benign bickering. I feel like that was one of the only things that remained consistent from the beginning of the drama to the end. They always had an argumentative, kind of back and forth dynamic, so I think it made sense that when they finally let all their baggage fall down and come together, that they would still have an element of that competitiveness and playful bickering. So I thought it was cute, but understand your lack of patience for it (BELIEVE ME, I understand!) OH! One other thing I just remembered that I enjoyed--when Ji Wook was chasing Hyun Soo, trying to make sure he didn’t get away (AGAIN), Bong Hee just showed up out of nowhere and fly-kicked the guy unconscious in one fell swoop. HA! That gave me a chuckle. Ji Wook seemed pretty surprised by it too. I enjoyed the moments where the drama reminded us that Bong Hee was not some pushover, I just wish there had been more or those moments. Because there were honestly chunks of this drama where I forgot that fact.

OhSoEnthusiastic: It was always refreshing when the characters behaved the way we knew they were supposed to, but it still always rang hollow for me. Seeing her kick ass was great, but it was also just a reminder of what we were promised at the beginning of the drama with her character but never got. Just like when they showed us all these frenemy moments between our little threesome of ladies. It was cute, fun, charming, and frustrating, because this should have been happening all along, not just now at the last minute.

I’m just disgruntled with this drama as a whole and can’t be appeased at this point, lol.

DeShonda: I loved every moment when this drama showcased Bong Hee kicking ass and taking names. I know I mentioned this before, but I almost forgot she is very skilled at martial arts. I loved the back and forth between her and Ji Wook I thought it was very cute. I shipped them at the beginning and it was good to watch how their relationship developed. I am glad it was a happy ending for them.

Marakeshsparrow: Also agree with the frenemy stuff! Towards the end of this drama, those were actually the moments I was enjoying the most, but it should have come in so much sooner. And they TOTALLY wasted the character of Yoo Jung. When they introduced her, I was so intrigued by her relationship with Bong Hee and how that would play out, but we really didn’t get anything there. She didn’t add anything to the story, except to give a love interest to our second male lead. I think her character and the dynamic she could have added to the story was totally a missed opportunity.

OhSoEnthusiastic: Yeah. She had such an interesting personality, and then they didn’t use it. I guess I’ll just say what I’ve been saying the last few weeks or so. This drama has been disappointing me, and I’m genuinely glad it’s over. Too many storylines, lack of cohesiveness, missed opportunities, characters that weren’t given a chance to shine, too many things just fell apart with this story. Guess I’ll have to console myself with another drama, lol.

Marakeshsparrow: Yeah, I have to agree that this drama disappointed. Which is too bad, because I had fairly high hopes after watching the first few episodes. I’m wondering what exactly happened along the way. Was pressure from producers making the writers take weird and awkward missteps? Was it public response? Netizens? //shrugs// Who knows. I guess the only thing we can do is look forward and hope that the next one is better. I’m sure we’ll be seeing some more great things from Ji Chang Wook once he returns from the military. I’m going to do my best to be optimistic!